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Annoying bar at bottom of Post Wndow

Ambrosia7177

Ambrosia7177

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Feb 6, 2016
2,215
433
Not sure if MacRumors is an Common-Off-The_Shelf (COTS) solution, or custom built.

Either way, I find the bar that appears at the bottom of the form used to compose a Post to be very annoying!!

1589221734972.png


This "Post Thread/Preview" bar floats above the text box you are typing in, and when your message gets to the bottom, the content and cursor disappear beneath this floating bar.

So you have to take your mouse pointer and scroll down so you can see things, OR hit the <Enter> key several times to bump up your text so it is viewable.

This is a UI 101 failure, and it would be nice if you could fix it!!
 
TheAppleFairy said:
If it's coving the text box on yours I think it would be useful for the developer to know what OS, Browser, and screen resolution you are using to address the issue.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's kind of minimal bug reporting expectations (when dealing with the web), all the above, plus versions.

Side note to the quoted poster, I seriously thought your sig said "Vegetarians ..." :D
 
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Hmm, yeah, cross checked it (including resizing windows where applicable) on several combos of OS + browser, not seeing it. Are you running any kind of script injection type tool like GreaseMonkey?
 
yeah... It's weird. I don't see that bar either. Right now running Firefox on Catalina

testing... length

I see it when I edit but only for long posts.
[automerge]1589224649[/automerge]
@Texas_Toast Can you post a full screenshot?
 
Last edited:
D.T. said:
Hmm, yeah, cross checked it (including resizing windows where applicable) on several combos of OS + browser, not seeing it. Are you running any kind of script injection type tool like GreaseMonkey?
Click to expand...

Let me take better notes whe it happens again.

Of course now I cannot recreate it, but it happens often.
 
arn said:
yeah... It's weird. I don't see that bar either. Right now running Firefox on Catalina

testing... length

I see it when I edit but only for long posts.
[automerge]1589224649[/automerge]
@Texas_Toast Can you post a full screenshot?
Click to expand...

Well, I did post a screen shot in my OP. But let me try to give you more context when it happens again.
[automerge]1589225695[/automerge]
Just made a video in SnagIt, but looks like I cannot attach it

Towards the end of the video, it may not be obvious, but I continue to type, "8, 9, 10, 11,..." but the Text Box is BENEATH the bottom ToolBar and so you cannot see what you type!!

Need to remove the "float" and make that toolbar part of the main window.

I would call this am HTML/CSS bug.

HTH.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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@arn,

I just sent you a PM with a link to a video capture that I made of the bug.

Didn't want to post it here for privacy reasons.

(Probably shouldn't have put that online, but am trying to help MacRumors!)
 
ah. I found it. Its when you Post a Thread. Not reply.

Let me look into that.

arn
 
arn said:
ah. I found it. Its when you Post a Thread. Not reply.

Let me look into that.

arn
Click to expand...


Duh, yeah, I didn't even notice the button labels in the original post ... I blame the booze ... ;)

Anyway, yes, if your text content - when creating a new thread - exceeds the visible textarea, the latter does expand, but the bottom part of the layout doesn't, so you have to scroll the textarea, I mean, it's work-around-able.

FWIW, it exhibits this behavior in MacOS 10.14.6, Chrome 8x.xx too.
 
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arn said:
ah. I found it. Its when you Post a Thread. Not reply.

Let me look into that.

arn
Click to expand...

Here, I was typing up a new reply to a thread, and when I go to the botton of the screen, I saw this...

1589258094558.png


Notice how when I got to the bottom of the window the text box is frozen nd I have to take control from it and click on the scroll bar and scroll down to be able to see the end of my message.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Texas_Toast said:
Here, I was typing up a new reply to a thread, and when I go to the botton of the screen, I saw this...

View attachment 914292

Notice how when I got to the bottom of the window the text box is frozen nd I have to take control from it and click on the scroll bar and scroll down to be able to see the end of my message.
Click to expand...

I can't see that from your screenshot. You trim off too much.
 
TheAppleFairy said:
I can't see that from your screenshot. You trim off too much.
Click to expand...

Yeah, not sure why they're not getting a full screen shot, but anyway, it's this:

So the bottom part of the layout, the section that contains the Post / Preview buttons, when scrolling down, goes fixed when you hit the bottom.

i.e., the pic below, the content scrolls behind it:

1589300963541.png



However, the text area with the main post text scrolls as expected note scroll bar):

Screen Shot 2020-05-12 at 12.28.24 PM.png



And when you reach the end of the textarea content, the entire window scrolls as expected - this is a number of "pages" of content:



Screen Shot 2020-05-12 at 12.28.43 PM.png



I'm able to pretty easily get to the part of the page I need, the text content area, the controls, any other part of the window. I mean, it's a bit of a complex layout, but it works as I would expect it to, and not something I wouldn't do (saying this as a developer/architect of ~30 years).

*shrug*
 
D.T. said:
Yeah, not sure why they're not getting a full screen shot, but anyway, it's this:

So the bottom part of the layout, the section that contains the Post / Preview buttons, when scrolling down, goes fixed when you hit the bottom.

i.e., the pic below, the content scrolls behind it:

View attachment 914413
Click to expand...

Right, and that is the "bug".

That is a poor UI design at best.


D.T. said:
However, the text area with the main post text scrolls as expected note scroll bar):

View attachment 914414
Click to expand...

Yes, a scroll bar appears, but as ou keep typing your text is covered by the suddenly fixed botton menu bar, so the only way to see what I am typing is to stop typing and scroll down so I can see what I have - or do what I do and just hit the <enter> key a bunch to bump up what I am typing so it reappears.


D.T. said:
And when you reach the end of the textarea content, the entire window scrolls as expected - this is a number of "pages" of content:

View attachment 914415
Click to expand...

Why make me, as a user, do all of this extra work?


D.T. said:
I'm able to pretty easily get to the part of the page I need, the text content area, the controls, any other part of the window. I mean, it's a bit of a complex layout, but it works as I would expect it to, and not something I wouldn't do (saying this as a developer/architect of ~30 years).

*shrug*
Click to expand...

And I've been in IT for just as long, and can tell you that if your suers have to do all of these things to get things to keep working, then your solution is broken.

You sound like a Microsoft developer! (It works just fine, as long as you do this and don't do that - otherwise if you use it nrmally you'll break it!!)

If this was my website - and it isn't - I'd stuck with the key principal of: K.I.S.S.

The reason the Internet is so F up in the last 20 years is all of this damn Javascript and pop-up and extra crap that looks flashy, but doesn't help users to get things done.

The HTML/CSS on this page breal good design because it overcomplicates things AND it stops me in my tracks from trying to accomplish what I set out.

Lastly, I have never seen such a design on any other website I have visited. Why? because it's a poor UI design...
 
Texas_Toast said:
You sound like a Microsoft developer!
Click to expand...

Well, just to clarify, I'm not "in IT", I'm a developer/author/systems architect, I've worked in web, mobile, crypto, machine learning, AV/VR, public and private sector, multiple startups, I have reasonable expertise in UI/UX (literally wrote, or at least contributed to a few books/papers that are considered canon in that subject matter), code in dozens of languages, know most major/modern frameworks/SDKs, I built the one of the first CMS products (Java based, backed by Oracle), in the mid 90s, used by Tropicana and the NFL.

I'll leave this for someone else to figure out, it might be the "Dagnabbit Javascript making things worse" :D
 
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TheAppleFairy said:
Watch my screen. Is this what you mean? Notice how I move my cursor outside of the text box, then I can scroll.

Click to expand...

Next time I post a new message, let me try what I think you are doing and see if that helps me navigate a poor design...

Will report back!
[automerge]1589304616[/automerge]
D.T. said:
Well, just to clarify, I'm not "in IT", I'm a developer/author/systems architect, I've worked in web, mobile, crypto, machine learning, AV/VR, public and private sector, multiple startups, I have reasonable expertise in UI/UX (literally wrote, or at least contributed to a few books/papers that are considered canon in that subject matter), code in dozens of languages, know most major/modern frameworks/SDKs, I built the one of the first CMS products (Java based, backed by Oracle), in the mid 90s, used by Tropicana and the NFL.

I'll leave this for someone else to figure out, it might be the "Dagnabbit Javascript making things worse" :D
Click to expand...

And I respect and admire all you have done - nice resume!! :apple::apple::apple:

Fwiw, I wrote my first program in BASIC in the early 1980s, and have worked in IT for the last 25+ years as a programmer, database developer, project manager and lastly a business systems analyst most of my carrer.

In my free time I am working on a startup and doing all of the coding myself.

I am not a UI guru, but I understand things well enough to know what IS and IS NOT a good design, and this is a case where the design is poor.

Would be nice if @arn could have someone look into improving this since it sslows me down everytime I post...

Thanks.
 
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